In Britain he is probably best known for his thought-provoking documentaries on BBC Radio 4, and his appearances on Dateline London, the BBC News 24 programme featuring foreign correspondents (see Goldfarb on left in cover photo).

For Boston’s NPR station, WBUR, he produced the outstanding Inside Outside documentary, Southern State of Mind, which revealed the ails and aspirations of the US South. American coastal decision-makers apparently knew little about hidden corners of their nation’s interior, as the November 2016 seemed to prove!

President Donald Trump

Since then, Goldfarb has become something of a “reluctant expert” on the Trump phenomenon. He often finds himself asking: Is the American republic built to withstand a malevolent president? Possibly not, as he wrote for the Guardian’s Comment is Free columns. Instead, ‘Donald Trump is gleefully shredding the principle of common good that underpins the constitution’. Michael also appraised the first hundred days of the Trump presidency in this BBC Radio 4 documentary, mischievously titled The Honeymoon.

Besides current affairs, books and programmes on the Middle East, and searing social analyses, Goldfarb maintains a keen interest in Jewish culture and history.